Ladder: official labels, in Africa

A government officially brands a news outlet or a journalist as a source of disinformation or "fake news", or requires it to register as an agent of another country. Such labels often carry reporting duties and restrictions, and can cost the outlet its audience and advertisers.

The number of entries reflects the depth of this record, not the severity of a country's conduct.

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2Pressure

Using state power short of prosecution to change coverage: regulatory threats, licence reviews, funding cuts, lawsuits by officials, official "fake news" or "foreign agent" labels, advertising pressure, tax audits.

EGEgyptRSF 2026 rank: 169th of 180

22 March 2019Abdel Fattah el-Sisi

Under a 2018 law that treats any social media account with more than 5,000 followers as a media outlet, Egypt's media regulator fined news site al-Mashhad and ordered internet providers to block it for spreading what it called false news.

Note: Egyptian law classifies any social media account over five thousand followers as a media outlet subject to state fines and blocking, and Egypt used it to fine and block a news site for weeks; no United States "fake news" designation can fine or block an outlet.

Unknown 7 May 2019 · 2 sources · Full entry

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